#4 Ally for Cost Value - Elrond

The fourth position in our list of allies with good Cost Values is the elf who runs Rivendell, Elrond. This Lore ally is found in the Road Darkens box from the LOTR Saga expansions. His Cost Value is 183%.

It is quite normal to see characters in the Lore sphere that have good stats for everything. You are left looking at several good options and wondering which is the best for right now. Elrond is one of these characters, offering particularly good Willpower and Defence

But he offers these at a really good cost. These same stats have been seen before on the Lore ally Gildor Inglorion, who costs five resources. So Elrond's cost of three shows why he has such a good Cost Value! The balance put in by the game designers is that, like Gandalf, he won't stay around for long. He leaves play at the end of the round.

If you consider that whichever stat you use will only be useful for a single round, you may think that Elrond is really just a bit like an Event card. Need to boost a characters attack by two this round? Elrond can effectively do that by entering play and joining with the attack, but paying three resources for this doesn't seem like good value for money any more.

Which is why it is also good that Elrond, like the Core Set version of Gandalf, offers us several options when he enters play. Healing and drawing a card are both useful, but Lore already offers several other cards for these. What makes Elrond stand out most is that he is only the third card released that allows you to discard Condition Attachments. This, all by itself, may be the reason you want to include him in your deck.

The Worst for Threat Value - Bilbo

The shame! The disappointment! As we come to the end of this list, it turns out that the first expansion ever released for LOTR LCG was the worst Hero for Threat Value. The offender in question is the original Hobbit himself, Bilbo Baggins. He is a Lore Hero found in the Hunt for Gollum adventure pack in the Mirkwood cycle of expansions. His Threat Value is 67%.

If Bilbo is on your team, you are unlikely to send him questing. You are also unlikely to use him for attacking. Both of these stats have a value of one that can quickly be passed by. The only job he might be good for is that of a defender since is Defence value is two. But even this is a poor offering, as a better Lore defender is already included in the Core Set (Denethor has a Defence of three) and Bilbo only has two Health. Many reasonably average enemies would kill him without breaking a sweat. Yes, you can always boost his defence with various player cards, but we can't count on that, can we? So the only thing left to consider is his power.

Bilbo allows the first player to draw an extra card every turn. Card drawing effects are extremely helpful in this game, it must be said. But Bilbo's power only applies to the first player, so his power benefits from having less players in a game, which usually makes a quest harder, especially in the earlier cycles. In a solo game it means you will draw two cards every turn. That's good, but is it good enough? I'm afraid I don't think it is.

Our formula calculates that Bilbo should have a Threat Cost of six. But the designers of the game have here made their biggest ever manual increase of a Heroes Threat Cost, and increased this by three to be a total of nine! Nine? If Bilbo cost six he would be a likely Hero for Lore teams, or at a cost of seven he would still be looking good in a Hobbit team. But nine? It seems overpriced. In fact I would go so far as to say that in Bilbo, the designers have made their biggest mistake in overpricing a Hero. It's not as if the Lore sphere doesn't have other card drawing effects. I think that this Hobbit will unfortunately remain in a restful state for much of his life, writing about the quests that he hears other Heroes bring back tales of.

#6 Ally for Cost Value - Booming Ent

The sixth best Ally for Cost Value is the ferocious tree herder, the Booming Ent. This tactics Ally is found in the Antlered Crown adventure pack from the Ring Maker expansion cycle. His Cost Value is 175%.

I do like the mechanic used for Ents that states they enter play exhausted. That, combined with the inability to have restricted attachments, gives a great feeling that these beings are big and powerful, but never hasty to enter the battle. This particular Ent is apparently a loud one, who gets stronger (and presumably louder) when any of his Ent friends have been wounded.

This Ally should cost, according to the formula, three and a half resources. Getting him for only two, with the balance of needing to wait one round before he actually does anything, seems like a good deal. Two attack (minimum) and two defence makes him useful in the combat phase of each round, as we would expect from the Tactics sphere.

He should be useful in any quest that involves combat, unless perhaps the quest is one which plunges you straight in the deep end and requires ally aid from the very first round.

4th Worst for Threat Value - Grima

Grima, the sneaky advisor to the King of Rohan, enters the Threat Value list four entries from the bottom. He is a Lore Hero found in the Voice of Isengard deluxe expansion from the Ring Maker cycle. His Threat Value is 89%.

The formula calculates that his Threat Cost should be eight instead of nine, so why have the designers raised it by one? Grima does not boast particularly strong stats in any one area, but like many Lore Heroes he is at least flexible and gives you options.

The designers seemed to consider that his ability, which doesn't require Grima to exhaust, is worth the extra Threat point. The ability to reduce card costs every round is certainly powerful, but it comes with it's own penalty of raising your threat even further. I can't speak on whether this is a worthwhile trade because I have never played using the Doomed player card mechanics in the Ring Maker cycle. For aggressive players, this might certainly be appealing. Grima turns out to be another Hero that you would use for his power, not his stats.

#2 Ally for Stat Value - Defender of Rammas

The second best Ally for their Stat Value is the steadfast Defender of Rammas. This Tactics Ally is found in the Heirs of Numenor deluxe expansion from the Numenor cycle. His Stat Value is 400%.

This is the card that supposedly replaced the Winged Guardian Ally, who had the same Defence value of four for only a Resource Cost of two, but that eagle would remove itself from play after defending if you didn't bribe it with more resources to stay. Whereas the Gondorian soldier we are looking at here will give you an amazing defender for a small cost and stay with you. By switching the eagle for the soldier you do lose the Sentinel keyword, but everything else seems to be an improvement.

If you have even a single Tactics Hero it would seem worthwhile having this Defender from Gondor in your deck, unless maybe that Tactics Hero is Beregond and you aren't anticipating a swarm of enemies.

#4 Ally for Stat Value - Winged Guardian

The Ally that takes fourth place for Stat Values is the Winged Guardian. This Tactics ally is found in the Hunt for Gollum Adventure Pack from the Mirkwood cycle expansions. His Stat Value is 400%.

This handy eagle was the first character in the game to boast four defence, and for a cheap cost of only two resources it is no wonder it made it high in this list.

With stats of zero for Willpower and Attack, there's only one thing this bird is good at, and it does it well. The Sentinel keyword is a nice bonus for multiplayer games, but needing to pay resources to keep this Ally in play would eventually cause it to be somewhat replaced by another Tactics ally.

7th Worst for Threat Value - Elladan

The Hero with the seventh worst Threat Value is the son of Elrond, Elladan. He is a Tactics Hero found in the Road to Rivendell adventure pack from the Khazad-Dum expansions cycle. His Threat Value is 90%.

Elladan has printed stats that our calculation believes to not be worth his printed Threat Cost of ten. However, I think it rare that this Hero will ever be in play without his brother Elrohir at the start of a game, because while Elrohir is in play Elladan will have three Attack instead of only one. If we put this modification into our formula, Elladan's new Threat Value is 110%.

So Elladan might not be a bad addition to your Hero team after all, but this stat boost is dependent on another card being present. You might choose to avoid the sons of Elrond if you were going to enter a game where it seems likely that a Hero may die or be taken out of the game in some other way.

8th Worst for Threat Value - Beregond

I must admit, the Hero that makes the position of being the eight worst Hero for Threat Value comes as a surprise. It is Beregond. He is a Tactics Hero found in the Heirs of Numenor deluxe expansion. His Threat Value is 90%.

For such a good Hero, we should be able to quickly work out why he is in this "worst" list at all. The answer is simply that he is so good at the one job he does (defending), the best of all the Heroes released so far in fact, that the designers set his Threat Cost at one higher than the figures predict.

This seems like a fair penalty. A Defence value of four is enough for most average enemies to do absolutely no damage to a character at all, and even many of the boss baddies will struggle to scratch him. A defence of four will be high enough in many quests to effectively be invincible. So having your starting threat raised by one compared to what you would expect seems like a small price.

But numbers are numbers, and the calculations put him towards the bottom of the Threat Value list. In this case, I would ignore this position, and instead focus on the fact that he is ranked in 5th place from the top of the Stat Values list.

10th Worst for Threat Value - Elrond

Having looked at the three Heroes with Threat Values higher than 100%, we will next look at the Heroes with Threat Values lower than 100%. These are characters whose stats predict a certain Threat Cost, but for various reasons the designers of the game have pushed the Threat Cost higher than it would normally be. The reasons vary, as we shall see.

There are currently ten Heroes with Threat Costs lower than 100%. The first of these, sitting in a position as the tenth worst Hero by this measurement, is Elrond. He is a Lore Hero found in the Shadow and Flame adventure pack in the Dwarrowdelf cycle expansions. His Threat Value is 92%.

Elrond's stats indicate that his Threat Cost should be twelve, but he has been released with one of thirteen instead. Since the designers have not gone by numbers alone, we must assume (as we will with all Heroes on this "worst Threat Value" list) that the power in the text box is what the designer feels has justified the extra cost.

The ability to pay for allies in any sphere is unique in the game, and certainly makes multi-sphere deck building a lot easier. Being in the Lore sphere he provides access to many healing cards and so his response power also plays to his strengths.

I would say that although raising his Threat Cost by one above the Predicted Threat seems justified by the multi-sphere power, I would find him annoying to use in a team that didn't quickly provide some readying abilities. Such strong figures for both Willpower and Defence seem wasted if only one can be used each round for the entire game.

#5 Hero for Stat Value - Beregond

The fifth position for Stat Values is the citadel guardian Beregond. He is a Tactics Hero from the Heirs of Numenor deluxe expansion. His Stat Value is 160%.

As is usually the case for Heroes in the top ranks of the Stat Value list, it is obvious which of his three stats earns him the position. His defence of four for a Threat Cost of ten is excellent to suggest that he can be assigned to protect you from some of the hardest hits the enemy can throw at you.

Beregond is currently the only Hero released with a defence of four, and no other Heroes can boast more than this. His Sentinel keyword allows you to help other players out, and his power and sphere also gives you quick access to Weapon and Armour attachments that can make the best defender even better.

And he really is the best defender. This Gondorian warrior is the last defender we shall see in the count down of the top Heroes for Stat Value; all the next Heroes have earned their positions for either good Willpower stats or good Attack stats.

#6 Hero for Stat Value - Denethor

Only two Heroes from the Core Set made it into the top seven ranks for Stat Value, and the first of those that we see is Denethor. He is a Lore Hero from the Core Set. His Stat Value is 150%.

His defence of three for his Threat Cost of eight make him a very efficient defender for your team. The Lore sphere which he belongs to also has access to some good cards for cancelling shadow effects and healing your characters if they ever get hit by an enemy that is tougher than normal.

There are four other Heroes with a defence of three. It is interesting to note that two of them have good Stat Values and two do not.

The two that do are Dain Ironfoot and Erkenbrand. Dain's defence of three and Threat Cost of 11 give him a Stat value of 109%. However you are more likely to find him useful for his ongoing power than for his defending ability. Erkenbrand's defence of three and Threat Cost of 10 give him a Stat Value of 120%. His power makes it obvious that he is good for one job, defending.

The two Heroes with three defence that have a Stat Value of less than 100% are Elrond (Lore) and Gandalf (Neutral). Elrond has a Stat Value of 92% and Gandalf has a Stat Value of 86%. In both cases this is due to their highest value stat of three being not so great compared to their Threat Costs of thirteen and fourteen respectively. But obviously their Threat Costs need to be this high due to them having powerful stats across the board; they are not one-trick ponies. So here we can make an observation; Heroes which have more than one powerful stat may score badly for Stat Value.